Lhyfe wants to reoxygenate Baltic Sea via green hydrogen production

Lhyfe (EPA:LHYFE) announced on Wednesday that alongside a couple of partners, it will attempt to solve an issue known as “anoxia” by injecting oxygen into the Baltic Sea through the production of green hydrogen offshore.

The French company has teamed up with Power-to-X (PtX) specialist Flexens and Stockholm University's Department of Ecology, Environment, and Plant Sciences (DEEP) to undertake the Baltic Sea Oxygenation and the Super-Green Hydrogen Economy (BOxHy) project.

Do you know we have a daily hydrogen newsletter? Subscribe here for free!

Lhyfe explained anoxia as the complete lack of oxygen in the marine environment. Together with its partners, it intends to evaluate suitable offshore locations to carry out a pilot study of the reoxygenation of marine ecosystems via the oxygen co-produced during the process of water electrolysis. Their idea is to inject pure oxygen below the pycnocline.

BOxHy, financed by the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) Fund, was launched in October and is expected to be concluded at the same time next year.

“Our role includes mapping existing and potential Power-to-X projects to find connections with anoxic regions and determining the electrolyser capacity required to meet the oxygen demand in these regions. We are also responsible for investigating the energy supply availability for potential large-scale electrolysers from planned offshore wind farms (e.g., in the Aland Islands),” commented project manager Szilvia Haide of Flexens.

Lhyfe will look into the integration of an existing method called Deep Oxygen Injection (DOI) with the offshore hydrogen production platform, and into its replicability in the Baltic Sea environment. In turn, DEEP will primarily evaluate the suitability of different coastal bays for testing oxygenation on a pilot scale.

Jakob Walve, marine ecologist at DEEP, underscored some of the many positive effects long-term oxygen additions could have on the Baltic Sea ecosystem.

“The habitat for cod reproduction and feeding would greatly expand. We can also expect lowered phosphorus concentrations as more will be bound in sediments, and thus less intense bloom of nitrogen-fixing, toxic cyanobacteria,” he said.

BOxHy is also supported by the Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STACO), a panel of nine experts in oxygenation from around the world.